The Indians

Who was King Philip?

Metacom/Metacomet, King Philip as the colonists called him, became leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy in 1662, and was the second son of Chief Massasoit. He was also known as Philip of Pokanoket.

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, it was Massasoit's territory they invaded. Massasoit's principle residence was with the Pokanoket at Sowams in Rhode Island, but he was Grand Sachem of the whole Wampanoag Confederacy and had as many as 31 sub tribes under him.

Metacom/King Philip was born c. 1638, either in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, probably in Sowams, Rhode Island and lived at Mount Hope. He married an Indian woman named Wootonekanuske. She was born in Pocasset, Massachusetts. A son of Philip, a daughter of Philip, a child of Philip, and Lucy, another daughter, were born to this couple. No one knows how many children King Philip and Wootonekanuske had or what happened to them. A child of Philip was buried on April 1, 1671, at Mount Hope. His wife and son, age 9, were captured during the war and sold into slavery in the West Indies as were hundreds of other Indians. His daughter Lucy had escaped by canoe to Canada.

There was no likeness of Philip that survived, therefore, we do not know what he looked like. What has become known is more general ethnic information about the Algonquians, such as the men were taller than the English; contemporary accounts picture them as lithe of limb, "the men fairer than the women".

Descriptions of Philip's character often reflected the bias of the times more than the life of a real, flesh and blood man struggling to adapt to his rapidly changing world. What was written by the Puritans had a strong bias against Philip, as their fear and dislike colored their writings. Others considered him to be a proud strategic leader. Metacom's dignity and unbending spirit both impressed and frightened the settlers, and he became a symbol of the Indian menace that could not be controlled.

Metacom, upon Massasoit's death in 1661 and that of his elder brother Wamsutta (Alexander) the following year in 1662, became chief of the Wampanoag Confederacy as Wamsutta was laid to rest. As he was growing up, Metacom had witnessed the mounting colonial injustices against his own people and the ravaging effects of the whites' diseases. At the age of 24, Metacom had seen his brother Wamsutta, first in succession to Massasoit, die at the hands of the colonists, if not intentionally poisoned as the Indians believed, at least from disease contracted when Wamsutta was summoned before colonist officials for questioning. Alexander died on his return home to Sowams as his fever intensified. The body of the young Sachem was carried the rest of the way on the shoulders of his men, grim evidence of the dangers of undertaking any action against Plymouth.

Philip the younger brother who arrived at center stage at a critical time in New England's Settler-Native relations found it increasingly difficult to keep the pledge of peace, primarily because of the ever-widening sale of Indian land to the English and the humiliations to which he and his people were continually subjected. The pressure on the young Sachem to remain steadfast in the face of English demands must have been extraordinary. The next years were filled with uneasiness and rumors.

Events finally came to a head when three Wampanoag were brought to Plymouth to stand trial for the murder of John Sassamon who had at one time been close to Philip, but had been dismissed from Philip's service because of distrust. To Philip and his people the trial that had taken place was a flagrant miscarriage of justice and further proof that maintaining an amicable, respectful relationship between the natives and the English was impossible. That Wampanoags could be tried in Plymouth for Sassamon's death is crucial, for it raised issues of land and Philip's rule.  On June 8, 1675, Plymouth executed Tobias and Mattashunannamo for the killing of John Sassamon. Sassamon had been no ordinary individual, but a highly symbolic rival of the Wampanoag Sachem Philip. The execution of his people set in motion a war which, by June 1675, neither side could halt.

Massachusetts Bay sent emissaries to mollify Philip. Rhode Island invited the Pokanoket to come to Providence and see if somehow wrongs could be righted. Despite his profound doubts that mere words would now do much good, Philip accepted the invitation, journeying to Rhode Island with forty warriors and counselors. It was here that Philip's complaints about English justice poured forth. He reviewed with bitterness the history of the  Pokanoket-Pilgrim relations and ended with a remarkable statement about his own attitude:  "My elder brother became Sachem, he was seized and confined and thereby thrown into illness and died. Soon after I became Sachem they disarmed all my people, their land was taken. But a small part of the dominion of my ancestors remains. I am determined not to live until I have no country." Philip's words still seem tremendously powerful: he could not go on until his country was no more. Neither he himself nor his warriors would do that.

War came on June 24, 1675. The Wampanoag attacked English settlers at Swansea in Plymouth, beginning King Philip's War. This war became one of the costliest confrontations in colonial history. It is believed that more than half of the 90 settlements in the region had been attacked and a dozen destroyed. Whole Indian villages were massacred and tribes decimated.

When the Indian alliance began to disintegrate and food became scarce in August of 1676, King Philip, with most of his relatives killed and his wife and son taken captive, returned to his ancestral home at Mount Hope. He was betrayed by Alderman, a Wampanoag informer and killed in a final battle. He was beheaded and his head displayed on a pole for 25 years at Plymouth. He was about 38 years old.

Washington Irving in the early nineteenth century penned Philip of Pokanoket. His description of Philip: "He was a patriot attached to his native soil, a prince true to his subjects and indignant of their wrongs, a soldier daring in battle, firm in adversity, and ready to perish in the cause he had espoused. He was proud of heart and had an untamable love of natural liberty".

King Philip's War - After decades of English expansion into Native homelands in present day southern New England, a coalition of Native groups including Wampanoag, Nicmuc, Massachusett, Pocumtuck, Nonotuck, and Sokoki banded together in an effort to drive the English out of the northeast and back to England. An estimated 5,000 Native people and 2,500 English lost their lives during King Philip's War.

Aftermath of War - Members of the Wampanoag, Nipmuc and Narragansett tribes were gathered and sold into slavery. Those who escaped fled from tribe to tribe as each in turn was destroyed.

Sources:   "King Philip's War, The History and Legacy of America's forgotten Conflict", Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias, "King Philip's War, Civil War in New England 1675-1676", James D. Drake and "The Red King's Rebellion", Russell Bourne.